Paths Carved in Stone
by QuayJaquelinXeomaraZendaya
Summary: Amy, Percy, Jason, and Hazel head to New Orleans to find the hostages and maybe bring down the Vespers while they're at it. They find and enter the stronghold easily enough, but can they manage to navigate and escape it too? Their quest will force them to face their fears, test their limits, and find out if any of the hostages are still alive by the end of it.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: REALLY LONG A/N FEEL FREE TO COME BACK AT END OF CHAPTER.**_ **Welcome! This is the sequel to "Who Wants the Medusa?" I'd recommend reading that one first, but—hey!—if you really want to, read on! I'm sorry it took so long to post, but I wanted to get a whole plot made and write a few chapters out, so I can hopefully stick to a once a week posting schedule. We'll see how it goes. Thank you all returning readers and welcome new ones! I hope you read and enjoy!**

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ **As a matter of fact, I do not own these characters. I'd much rather be their friend.**

 _ **Warning:**_ **I suppose it isn't much of a warning, but this doesn't follow any of the books and does not stick to all canon information; I know the first one did, but this plot is my own concoction and the first full story (probably as long as the first) that I have not used any canon source (ie the book plot) as a jumping off point. Super excited guys!**

 **Percy POV**

I couldn't quite pinpoint why, but I had this bad feeling surrounding me. It was as though Zeus planted a mini storm cloud above my head, following me around and hovering just out of reach so that I couldn't pin it down. The earth seemed to almost quake with laughter with each step I took.

"Her hold was strong here," Hazel interrupted my thoughts, laying a hand on my arm.

"Who?" I asked, searching my mind for any context of Hazel's statement.

She glanced around our small group cautiously. "Gaia. She held a lot of persuasion in New Orleans; at least she did back when I lived here." It made sense now—that dark, nagging disturbance in the back of my mind.

"Was New Orleans like this when you lived here?" I asked Hazel, trying to distract all of us from the lingering feeling of the mother of the titans, as we strolled along the streets. Jason glanced back at me gratefully; he had noticed it too. Amy continued on, oblivious to our tension. She was tense herself though, so she might have noticed but assumed it was about our quest. I felt simultaneously guilty and jealous. She had it bad, yes, but she never had to fight a war on the battlefield with the sheer magnitude that both the titan and giant wars required us demigods to fight.

Hazel started describing the various aspects of New Orleans that she remembered or used to know. I tried to listen as attentively as I could, thankful for the distraction, but eventually my eyes wandered to the surrounding buildings. Annabeth would love this place. There seemed to be a large mixture of architectural features she would love. Well, at least if Amy and Hazel's conversation on the flight over here was anything to go by.

"Wait a sec," Amy said, spinning on her heel and heading towards a sign out in front of a casino. She bent down, hand gently tracing over the inner side of one of the posts. It was a more traditional looking sign. It had the classic white and gold calligraphy that made my head hurt as the letters swirled and floated around in my vision.

"What does that say?" I asked Jason as Amy continued murmuring to herself, fingers following some pattern only she knew.

"White Essence Hotel and Casino," he supplied. He pointed at the sub heading. "Apparently, they have free wifi starting at 19.99."

"Wow, free stuff at a great price; can't get that in New York."

"It's here!" Amy interrupted, gesturing for us to look at the super interesting blank post. "I think this is where we need to be. The Cahill crest has been painted over, no doubt by the Vespers."

I looked closer at the post at the spot just above where Amy's hand rested. Picking up a small handful of dirt, Hazel gently rubbed it over the area. The crest seemed to just appear. How had I not seen it before? How did Amy see it?

The crest probably was incredibly stunning before it had been covered in white paint and dirt, but the elegance was still undeniable. It was a variation of a heater shield with a calligraphic letter C in the center. It was simple, yet there was a certain feeling of unity to it. There was no separation into sections or more parts to it, nothing to signify that the Cahill family was composed of branches.

"It's not a button or key of any kind," Amy explained. "I think it was left as a marker for the building. This may have been a base for the Madrigal branch that the Vespers took over. I doubt anyone would have even seen this or known to look for it before us."

"How did you?" I asked, feeling like I was missing something here.

Amy sighed, shoving herself up. We followed suit. A couple teens standing around a casino sign, nothing weird about that.

"My grandmother Grace was a Madrigal," Amy said. "I remember when she would tell Dan and me about her travels that she wished she could go to New Orleans, but the only hotel she would stay at was lost." She sighed again. "I always thought she meant it went bankrupt or something, but now I believe that maybe it was because the Vespers took it over. Grace wouldn't have cared if another branch took it."

 _So maybe we weren't the only ones New Orleans hung depression_ _over_ , I thought as I observed Amy's bunched up shoulders and down turned face.

"Well," Jason said, breaking the gloomy silence that had fallen over us. "There's only one way to be sure, right?" Jason pushed himself off the sign he had been leaning on. "Should be quick, it's not like we have to search the hotel rooms."

Hazel, Amy, and I shared confused looks. Jason sighed, noticing this. "It would be improbable that they would have more than one let alone all hotel rooms hooked up to this base because of all the tourists going in and out. There would be a higher probability that one of them would stumble upon it."

 _He is such a dork_ , I thought fondly as Jason started pacing in front of us.

"They wouldn't do just one room because it would be almost impossible to guarantee the room would always be available when it was needed," he lectured. "Any passage wouldn't be in the lobby or pool because the spaces are too open and sparse. They'd be just begging to be arrested for suspicious activity. Therefore," Jason concluded, stopping in front of us, "the only place we need to look would be?"

My mind flashed through all the possibilities. The sign was starting to blind me in the sunlight. White Essence Hotel and Casino really needed a new paint color. Hotel and Casino. Hotel and _Casino_. I grinned at Jason. "The casino!"

He grinned back. We turned to the girls. Hazel looked nervous but ready, managing a shaking smile back. Amy was already facing the building in front of us. It was giant, white, and reminded me as a cross between a church and the Parthenon. Her face was set in grim determination, a look I had seen on many demigods throughout both camps.

"Hey," I tossed over my shoulder as I began heading into the hotel. "At least they have free wifi at a great price if it doesn't work out!"


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N:**_ _Hey! Here's chapter 2! I hope you enjoy! Thank you reviewers and readers! Please read, relax, and enjoy!_

 **Percy POV**

I had a sudden flashback to the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The gigantic crowd of a wide variety of people, the almost overflowing amount of games covering the floor, the flashy posters, prizes, and waitresses that were scattered around the room, and the ridiculously high ceilings made me feel as though I had unknowingly walked straight back into that place. It wasn't true, of course, but that didn't exactly make me feel better.

We all paused just within the casino doors. Despite all the neon lights and signs, nothing was advertising a secret Vesper layer anywhere within the room. Well, there went the easy way.

"Let's split up," Amy suggested.

"Girls to the tables, guys to the slots?" Jason asked. Odd; I had expected to pair with Hazel so Jason could spend time with Amy.

"It'd look less weird than couples would," Amy agreed. That was also strange. Maybe I had missed something? I thought about asking, but something in Jason's eyes warned me off.

I looked at Hazel, who shrugged in response. "Fine with me," she replied.

Jason and I waved goodbye before turning in the direction of the gambling tables.

"Where do we start?" I asked him, feeling slightly overwhelmed with all the crowded slot machines and even more crowded pathways between them. The lights were dizzying and neon. They were obviously competing with the obnoxious, blaring sirens and other eccentric noises that blasted from the machines.

"I'm not sure," Jason replied, ducking swiftly under the arm of a waitress walking past carrying drinks.

I craned to look around the room. "Well, tell me, Captain America, if you were hiding a super-secret underground hideout door with a super-secret lock, where would you put it?"

I could see his eyebrow inch slightly up his forehead before he turned to look around the room, too. "Well, Aquaman, I would probably put it on the end of the row or against the wall."

"Well, _Thor_ , shall we start with the wall ones?"

" _Well, Namor_ , I think we shall," Jason said, guiding us through the throng of people towards the far wall of spinning lights and jingling music.

We scoured line after line of tourist filled slot machines.

It was boring.

I took stock of the room's occupants; many of them were obviously tourists, plain mortals with no interest other than trying to win millions. Other people, mainly dressed in white and gold, were hotel employees with blinding smiles and a passion for sucking money out of the tourists trying to get money. There were a few however that stuck out. Not many—but enough to make me feel the constant need to check over my shoulder to see if they had suddenly slid behind me when I wasn't looking. They were dressed like the security guards were in black and white suits, but it felt like they were watching us without moving an inch. There were only three, two leaning on the walls and one strolling around the tables. The men were watching, searching, for something. I just wish I knew what.

"There's a window," Jason muttered to me. Our shoulders bumped together as he leaned close. "There shouldn't be a window."

"Why not?" I asked, also lowering my voice.

"Casinos don't have windows or clocks because then visitors have no idea if it's day or night, or how much time has passed in the casino."

I looked where he was pointing and, sure enough, there was a window near the corner of the room near the end of one of the rows of slot machines. "It's right by the alley way."

"Like someone could hop out of the room, turn the corner and be home free," Jason added.

"A great escape route," I said, a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth, "as long as the secret door is nearby."

"Let's go see." He said, weaving a path towards the window.

"What's that?" I asked Jason, pointing to a "Wheel of Fortune" slot machine at the end near the window corner with a sign resting crookedly over its screen. The wheel above it appeared to be missing a few pieces and the pull arm looked to be stuck in a horizontal position unlike all the other surrounding vertical ones.

"Out of order," Jason supplied, as if I couldn't figure that out from the state of it. I quickly learned after entering this casino that if it wasn't flashy or noisy then it was either broken or someone stealing your wallet.

"There's something weird about the wheel," I said, leaning in for a closer look. Some of the zeros in the numbers were missing; in their places were shallow indentations, just enough space for a pebble to fit in.

Jason traced his finger along the one of the grooves. There were four total each in a different color. "Maybe this is that super-secret lock."

I nodded as he turned to look at me. My eyes briefly scanned the room. "So where's the key?"

Jason nodded towards Amy and Hazel. The girls were walking towards us at a rapid pace. Amy's phone was clenched tightly in one hand as her other arm was looped, rather stiffly in Hazel's. Hazel seemed to be cupping something in her hands. Both were tense.

The three men suddenly popped into the forefront of my mind. Gods, how could I have forgotten about them?

I looked around the room two of them were nowhere to be seen. The third, though, was striding towards the girls. He didn't appear to be rushed, but he also didn't have tolerance for obstacles in his way, roughly shoving aside any innocent tourist in his path. We must be close to the entrance, then. He didn't want us raising alarm, but he also knew that if we got into the base, we wouldn't have a sure way out.

"Jason," I said, turning back to the slot machine. "I think we need to learn how to play slots very fast or be ready to jump out the window even faster."

He turned to me, face grim. "I know."


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N:**_ _Hi! So glad you are enjoying this! Please read and enjoy!_

 **Amy POV**

Spread across a couple of the various tables, Hazel and I discovered a couple of odd stones that didn't seem to fit in with the other marbles. With nothing else to go on, we decided it would be good to snatch them up just in case while hoping the guys had found something a little more substantial to go off of.

Once again, demigods amazed me. Hazel, who over the plane ride I had learned was a daughter of Pluto (the Roman form of Hades), had the ability to sort of attract stones to her. They were apparently some type of gemstone which was why she could do that. I was glad I didn't have to attempt thievery because I was never very good at it, but it was also disconcerting to see stones just zoom, physically unprovoked, across a table and into Hazel's waiting hands.

I was going to ask her more about her powers, if only to loosen the strained silence this quest had brought on our group and maybe quench my thirsty curiosity, but then I noticed that we were slowly being surrounded. Not by a large group, only three men, but enough to make me loop my arm through Hazel's and start tugging her in a random direction to start searching for the boys.

"Did we get all of them?" Hazel asked me, biting her lip.

Truthfully I didn't know, but decided she needed something a little more encouraging so I went for the good old "We have to have gotten them all."

Her eyes darted all around. "How do we get rid of these guys without leading them to Percy and Jason? Divide and conquer?"

I considered this for a moment. "Meet back at the front door?"

She nodded, slipping out of my arm and sight.

I held my phone in front of me as though I was texting someone. The black screen provided a dark, but efficient mirror. I immediately found two of the three trails. One of them made a sharp left turn, presumably heading after Hazel.

I swiped a hat off one of the chairs, a jacket off another. I kept my phone glued close to my face. The man was good, but I was better. Well, let me rephrase that. I had to be better.

With a well-timed trip, I fell straight into a very nice group of tourists surrounding one of the slot machines in the middle of the casino. They absorbed me into their blob, surrounding me and cutting me off from view of outsiders. I slipped on the jacket and tucked my hair under the cap, allowing myself to be tugged up into the heart of the group. I stayed with them for a little bit, just talking and thanking them for helping me up, and then I continued my way down the aisle to the front just stopping a chatting with random strangers until I could no longer see the guard.

Hazel was already at the front doors when I got there. I shrugged off the items I had taken, rolling them up and stashing them underneath one of the food carts.

"You should keep the jacket," Hazel teased. "It looks good on you."

"I'll have to pass," I tossed back, looping my arm back with hers. "Now let's go find ourselves a couple of lost boys."

Hazel opened her fist, the impressions of the gems were visible across her palm where she had clenched them tightly. "What do you think these are for? A key maybe?"

I nodded. My eyes roamed the room in search of Percy and Jason and those security guards. Usually henchmen aren't as easily lost. "Yeah, but I have no idea what kind of door would have that key.

"I found the third guard," Hazel said, suddenly seizing into a pillar. The sudden freeze jolted me, causing me to stumble slightly at the sudden halt.

I tugged her forward. "Don't let him know that," I told her quietly. "Where is he?"

"Left," she replied, looking straight ahead with a stiff neck. "By the leopard print cat suit."

I couldn't decide which was worse: the imposing guard of the Vespers or the woman in vicious spiked high heels and an aggressive cat suit, and then the guard started trekking towards us and I decided he was more of a concern at the present moment.

We eventually found Percy and Jason by a window in the back corner of the slot machine section of the casino. Hazel and I were trying to act in a calm yet hurried fashion, like a school fire drill. However, Percy and Jason both tensed once they saw us, so I got the feeling we weren't being as innocent looking as we were trying to be.

Jason turned back to a "Wheel of Fortune" slot machine that looked like it needed a really good mechanic, while Percy started making a bunch of hand signals. I, unfortunately, do not know how to speak Percy sign language and by Hazel's confused face neither did she.

"Should you show him the gems?" I asked.

"I guess," Hazel shrugged, shuffling the pebbles in her hands until he could more easily show them to Percy. His eyes widened almost comically. He started roughly slapping Jason's shoulder (I still wasn't quite sure how it was completely healed since it had been pretty torn up, but I wasn't going to be upset about his good health either). Whatever he said to Jason, however, had the blonde's head flying up from his inspection of the broken down machine and looking towards Hazel's handful of gems.

Then both of them started gesturing to us. This time I did understand.

 _Hurry up._

I casually lifted my phone up, acting like I had received a text. The black screen provided a dark and slightly warped view of the room behind us. The guard, which should have stood out immediately with his uniform and overall buff and gruff look, wasn't readily appearing in my scope of vision. I tilted the phone various ways (without looking too stupid, I hoped) to try and see if he had perhaps slipped around to one of our sides.

"Do you see him?" Hazel asked quietly. Her hands were tucked into her pockets. Fists clenched tight around the rocks that apparently Percy and Jason recognized. We were almost there.

"No," I said, studying the room in my small phone screen.

A hand dropped onto my shoulder. I tensed, about to launch myself up and into the guy's face, so he'd release us and Hazel could get the stones to the boys.

"Hurry up," Percy said behind me. "We think we found a way in."

While I was grateful that hand was Percy's, I was also cursing myself for being so sloppy. I had been concentrating so hard on the details again; I had forgotten to pay attention to the big picture. It was alright this time, but mistakes like that again in enemy territory could get me and the others killed.


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N:**_ _Hi! Posting schedule… Yes, I agree that'd be a good thing to have. As of right now, the idea is once a week on Sunday. However, that may not always be possible. My suggestion would be to follow the story or check on Wednesdays because if I don't get it posted by then, I'll just post it next Sunday. Hope that helps. Please read and enjoy!_

 **Percy POV**

I was taking the long way around to get to the girls. Actually, to be more precise, I was taking the long way around to the guard that was slowly gaining ground on Amy and Hazel, so that he wouldn't see me before I got in the first hit. I was going pretty fast, while remaining unnoticed, but it didn't seem like it would be fast enough.

That was until the guard that had been following Amy and Hazel when we spotted them stopped. Like, stopped in the process of taking another step forward and froze. It was weird. His finger grazed his ear, and I noticed he had one of those little blue tooth phone things in his ear. The guy sneered at the girls or maybe at whoever was speaking to him, swiveling on the spot and stalking out of the casino. While thankful that I didn't need to start a fight with him, it was worrying that he had just turned away when he had seemed pretty determined to get Amy and Hazel.

"Vesper One must've ordered him to stop," Amy said after I explained what happened to her. "He must want us to find our way into the base. We must be on the right track."

"Or heading into a trap," I added jovially. "Or to certain death."

"Or both," Jason said wryly.

"Why, Mr. Grace," I replied, placing a hand over my wounded heart. "That tone was so dry, I'm beginning to feel rather parched."

He huffed good naturedly, turning his focus back to the wheel. He and Hazel were carefully slipping the gems the girls found in various orders to see what combination opened the door.

After a couple of minutes of failure, Jason finally fell back on his heels. "Nothing's working, and we don't have time to guess every possible pattern."

"Maybe there's another step we're missing," Amy said, resting against one side of the slot machine. She was looking so tired and discouraged that if the lever wasn't sticking out in between us, I would've given her a hug.

Wait a minute.

I looked down the line of slot machines, then back to our slot machine. Vertical, horizontal. Just because it was "broken" didn't mean the arm couldn't _move_ , right?

Amy watched me curiously as I approached. "Maybe the order doesn't matter," I told her. The lever was slender with the cold temperature of untouched metal in my hand. Double checking that Jason and Hazel had put all the stones in their spots, I heaved the lever up to the vertical position all the others were in.

Nothing.

Disappointment weighed heavily in my stomach. I had been so sure.

"Wait," Hazel ordered, both hands pressed palm down to the ground. "I feel something moving. Gears, I think."

The screen lit up and began spinning at a dizzying speed, making the four of us jump back in surprise. The colors flashed and numbers blurred. By the gods, this couldn't be good for my dyslexia. I had enough trouble reading numbers and words without them spinning on me.

The slight clinking and screeching of turning gears became audible. The number wheel stopped at 100. A button on the base started pulsing with light. It had "Push" printed across it in white lettering.

I looked around the casino. Nobody was even glancing our way. How did know one notice that? I knew it wasn't mist, so the best answer I could think of was just plain obliviousness. Maybe they're senses had been so dulled from long exposure to this kind of casino game, that it didn't even register as something.

"Well," Jason said once it became clear no one else was going to speak up. "Shall we?"

"Who are we to argue with the flashing red button?" I joked as Amy rested a hand over it. The muffled light gave Amy's hand a sort of burning glow, like at any moment it was going to either melt or burst into flames.

Amy just stared at it. Not in a "what am I about to do" way, but like the button had dredged up some long forgotten memory. Her eyes were unfocused, yet fixated on her glowing hand. Jason gently placed a hand over hers. Whatever spell had been casted over her was shattered. Amy blinked, looking up at Jason. Not one to be left out, I placed my hand on top of theirs. Hazel's on mine.

We pressed the button.

Gears grinded as the slot machine swung back into the wall, folding neatly into a small compartment. The opening revealed a stone arch hallway. Farther down the floor seemed to drop off which either meant there was a cliff or a stairway. I was hoping for the later.

We got all the way to where the floor dropped off. There was a staircase, thank the gods. The only problem was that it was one of those old fashioned swirling staircases. It looked like it had been taking right out of a castle in medieval times, spider webs and all. Annabeth would hate it here, despite the architecture of ye olden days that she liked so much. The problem with this kind of staircase was that you couldn't see anything other than right in front of you. There was no lighting and there was no way to see around the curve with all the stone curling around you. Why were we constantly having to go underground? I could feel phantom hands and claws tugging at my clothes and arms, trying to pull me deeper into Tartarus. Each of the bricks had Greek and Latin phrases and words carved into them.

Jason bumped me with his shoulder, jostling me to reality. The others had already gotten their flashlights out. I dug around in my pockets, completely forgetting which one I had put it in.

"You okay?" He asked quietly.

I pulled my flashlight out. "Yeah. Let's go."

A polite little _ding!_ called out from Amy's pocket. We all turned to her as she dug through her pocket to pull out the phone. It wasn't her personal phone though. It was the Vesper phone.


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N:**_ _Hey. How's everyone? Please enjoy chapter 5!_

 **Amy POV**

The Vesper Phone blinked at me, waiting to see what I'd do with the information of a new message. Should I ignore it? Absolutely not. What was it about? The hostages? Dan? Phoenix? Nellie? Who?

 _Good afternoon, Amy._

 _My, how far you've strayed from where I told you to go._

 _Did you really think I wouldn't know where you were? What you are doing?_

 _Did you get bored? Need more of a challenge? You are a bright young lady, after all. Since you are tired of our game, I've decided to change the rules!_

 _Continue deeper and you will find yourself in my new game. I made it special for you. Every time you fail, one will die. Every time you pass, you must leave one member of your little group behind._

 _It's game day. I hope you're ready._

 _Vesper One_

"What are the new rules?" Hazel asked, once everyone had read the text.

"No," Jason corrected. "What's the new game?"

"How about," Percy argued. "What are we walking into?"

All valid questions, but I knew the two that were the most important.

What about the hostages? Who is Vesper One?

The answer to the first was hopefully somewhere in this base and that they were all okay, even Phoenix. _Phoenix_ , my heart clenched at the thought of him. He was younger than Dan and possibly dead.

 _Or just missing_ , the optimist in my head argued.

 _Since when do the Vespers leave anyone alive?_ The pessimist in me shot my hope down.

Whatever the case, I needed to find him and the other hostages. If I knew the answer to the second question then I might've been able to devise a strategy based on their most likely choices, but I had no idea who it was. Well, that wasn't entirely true. It was just that the only person I thought could be Vesper One was dead and wasn't an evil person. Arthur Trent was not a bad man. _You're a smart young lady, after all._ It was what my father used to say. Granted it wasn't that unique of a sentence, but that, in addition to the button that glowed a peculiar red-orange light that reflected off my skin like the fire did as our house burned down, did make me wonder.

Jason slipped his hand into mine. I looked up startled, but he wasn't paying attention to me. While I was lost in thought, the others had apparently began an argument of whether or not we should go straight in or make a plan first.

"There's nothing to make a plan for," Percy argued. "And we have everything we need with us, so we might as well just go for it."

"I'm with Hazel," Jason interjected. "We need to wait a minute. We know how to get in here. Let's go regroup and head back in here when we are ready. Didn't you read the text? Vesper One basically threatened the lives of the hostages and us."

"Which is why," I said, interrupting all of the demigods before a fight broke out, though I didn't like disagreeing with Jason. "We need to go now. Who knows if one of the rules includes a timer? I say we keep going." I need to find Dan, and Nellie, and Fiske, and the others.

A soft _chirp_ cut off any response the others may have had. I tensed but the Vesper phone in my hand remained dark. I pulled out my cell phone. Jonah's sunglasses covered face lit up the screen. I checked his text, nearly collapsing into Jason with my relief.

"Phoenix is alive." Even out loud it was hard to believe, but Jonah would never joke about his little cousin's life.

Jason squeezed my hand. "Where is he?"

I looked at the three demigods, all showing various degrees of relief. Laughter tinged with a pinch of hysteria tried to bubble out of my throat, but I bit it back. "He called from somewhere in Austria. Jonah and Hamilton are going with Thalia and Nico to pick him up."

It was dreamlike. It really was. I couldn't ever recall a time my family ever got _this_ lucky.

"Well," Percy said, clapping his hands together with a smile. "Shall we press forth while our luck lasts?"

This time I did laugh, though the hysteria was marginally less prominent. "After you."

He grinned, pulling Hazel with him. Jason and I followed a little slower. I kept my flashlight moving constantly, alert for anything out of the ordinary. It seemed unlikely that the stairwell would be just a normal one, not even a camera.

"Really?" Percy's incredulous voice echoed through the spiral staircase. "This is just rude."

I couldn't see him, but he seemed to not be in danger, just really, really, insulted. Jason and I quickened our pace anyway.

Percy and Hazel stood at the far end of a small platform at the base of the stairwell. They stood in front of a large arched design on the wall that I belatedly recognized as a door. There didn't seem to be anything in the room, so the door must be insulting to Percy somehow. Maybe there was some Greek insult written on it. Or maybe he just didn't like doors. I tried to recall if Percy had shown any distaste to doors since I'd known him as the beam of light from my flashlight trailed across the octagonal shaped room, the domed ceiling, the tiled floor, and finally the wide door.

Oh.

That was insulting.


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N:**_ _Here's the next chapter! Thank you for the reviews. Please read and enjoy this one!_

 **Percy POV**

Medusa's face glared down at me like it was my fault she was in this situation. I mean, I guess a small portion of it was me, but it's not like I was the one who stuck the shield up there.

"We are so taking them out," I informed the others.

"Greeks and their pride," Jason teased.

"Says the Roman with an ego," I tossed back.

"Guys," Amy interrupted, stepping past us to the doors. "We'll come back for it. Let's go."

She shoved the doors open, marching right on without a glance back. Hazel swept past us, one hand trailing against the corridor's wall, no doubt trying to get a picture of the tunnels. She was much better being underground than I was.

Jason and I traded looks. He shrugged, heading through the doors after the girls.

Gods, this was awful. The son of Zeus was more comfortable underground than I was.

I pushed myself reluctantly into the corridor. I made it through the Colosseum; I can make it through here. My friends needed me.

I caught up faster than I had anticipated. The beams of lights swished over the walls and ground and ceiling, giving me the sense I had entered some club where even spotlights dance.

I wasn't up for doing the cupid shuffle right now.

We kept a straight path for as long as we could, not daring to take any turns and get lost. I strained my ears, not quite sure what I was listening for. Monsters? Vespers? The hostages?

We ended up at a fork in our path. We couldn't go straight anymore. Now that poet Jack Frost or something, recommends taking whichever one is less traveled by. Boy scouts or something says always take rights so you can find your way back. Grover would say to go into the one without monsters. Annabeth would tell me to go the correct way (not to be confused with the right way, as in direction wise). None of those seemed to help.

"Left," Hazel said after a few moments of staring at a wall with her hands on it. It was weird to watch like she was in some type of trance.

"Left it is," I said, gesturing for her to go first, since it was obvious she was the only one who seemed to have a clue where we were going. Hopefully we wouldn't run into another sarcophagus. I didn't have any hair combs to throw at people.

We cautiously trekked down the hallway, trying to not spread to wide but also not step on each other. There was something off in the hallway. I couldn't figure out what. It was a simple stone hallway, dim lights lined the ceiling as they had every other hallway we went through. There was really nothing different from this than any other hallway.

Amy swatted the air. I caught her gaze with a questioning look.

"Fly," she mouthed. I tried to pinpoint where the insect was, but I didn't see it anywhere.

My ears caught the sound though. It was buzzing, easily mistakable for a bug, but I, however, am the cousin of Thalia Grace and know the sound of crackling lightning right before it strikes. My eyes swooped over the hallway searching for where the bolt would emerge.

Amy. She had heard it—the only one as far as I could tell. It had to be by her. I looked to her again. She was closest to the wall. Hazel had moved to the center, taking front point in case of an attack until we reached the next branch. I flicked my flashlight over the redhead's body when a glint caught my eye. Right behind Amy on the wall was a very thin metal wire. It ran the entire length of the hallway from what I could see.

As much as I wanted to shout and launch myself at Amy, I knew it would result in several very bad outcomes, the Vespers knowing where we are and being electrocuted reaching the top of that list. Instead, I flicked my flashlight beam repeatedly in Jason's eyes until he glowered at me. I jutted my chin to Amy.

He cocked his head. The "I have no idea what you're talking about/doing, Percy" look was on his face (something all my cousins have seemed to master). Time for subtle charades.

I pointed at Amy, then the wall, then tried to mime an explosion. His expression didn't change, but he did slip closer to her, so I guess it was progress. I tapped my ear, telling him to listen.

He tilted his head down for a moment. I could see despite the shadows how his face shifted into realization then determination. He didn't make any move to push her out of the way though.

There's something incredibly stressful about walking down a hallway with three others when two of you know that the hallway is about to electrocute one of you but the one going to be electrocuted is not, in fact, the one of the people who know about the impending electrocution and the other who knows and can do something is _not doing anything_.

Jason was trying to give me a heart attack, wasn't he?

I strained my ears to keep tracking of the steadily increasing buzzing. Absentmindedly, Amy swiped the air again, aiming to ward off a bug that wasn't there. By the gods, if Jason didn't do something soon, I was going to have to revert back to my first plan.

Hazel glanced back at us every so often, making sure we were keeping up. We locked eyes. She tilted her head, finger tapping her ear with a questioning gaze. She could hear it too.

I shook my head once in warning when she went to open her mouth. I tipped my head in Amy and Jason's direction. Her brows furrowed. I shrugged.

I didn't know why Jason was waiting, but I had to trust he was going to save her. Hopefully before someone got electrocuted.


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N:**_ _Hi. Hope you all enjoy chapter 7._

 **Amy POV**

I kept hearing this fly buzzing around my head. At least, that's what I thought at first. However, as we progressed down the hallway and the buzzing continued and even increased in noise, I began to feel the hair on my arms stand up. A sense of dread began to form in me for some unknown reason.

A sort of itchy nervousness surrounded me. A memory was tugging at the back of my mind. I knew what the buzzing was. I just couldn't reach it. This was going to bother me now.

I felt more than heard Jason slip closer to me. His warm hand rested on the small of my back. It was comforting, though unnecessary. I wasn't some damsel in distress. I could handle walking down a hallway in enemy territory.

We continued walking down the hallway. This one seemed so much longer than the others, yet it held only a few doors. Most likely they few rooms were large ones, but it was still unsettling. If it hadn't been a Madrigal base before, I would have thought we entered some medieval fun house revamped for a carnival.

Jason had moved to my side now, slightly jostling me over so he was between me and the wall. His hand slid up to my shoulder.

Hazel began to slow down up ahead. I could see another fork in the path, but unlike the first time, she wasn't touching the wall.

Percy, having switched with Jason as the back guard, took a wide berth from us, I noted as he moved slightly past us. I felt Jason's head shift next to me, most likely nodding at his cousin.

And then he shoved me.

I looked up from Percy's arms in time to see Jason light up like lightning. A huge _boom!_ went off like exploding dynamite.

"Jason!" _Please don't let him be dead. I can't lose any more. Please._

But, no. There he was.

Jason was bathed in a frightening display of lightning. The air crackled and popped. The electricity—that's what it had to be—seemed to skitter and weave around him. Now I could understand all the religious artwork, with the angels surrounded in a halo of light. This, however, wasn't comforting—it was terrifying and awe inspiring. The blonde demigod didn't seem to be hurt as he was just standing there, unmoving with his head tilted down like he was listening or even _absorbing_ the lightning.

I slumped in Percy's arms, allowing him to pull me up as the light died down. He gathered me in a hug, blocking Jason from my view. I rested my head in the crook of his neck, trying to stop the shaking and calming my breaths like I had taught Dan for his asthma attacks.

Soon, though, I was transferred to another set of arms. Jason pulled me tight, one hand rubbing my back. I just wanted to stop the shaking. It was ridiculous. There was no reason for it. Everything was fine, well, as fine as it could be at this point.

"Sh," Jason told me, brushing some hair off my ear. "Stop thinking so hard. I'm alright. You're alright. We are all okay."

I pulled away to look at his face. I searched him for any damage. Nothing, not even the slightest hint of injury.

Taking a deep breath, I nodded. Shoving some stray hair behind my ear, I dragged my hands over my face once blowing out the breath in one long puff. I nodded again. Jason gave me a small smile and ran a hand down my arm before intertwining our fingers.

Percy and Hazel, now that the walls weren't hopefully going to explode on us again, were figuring out the next pointed us to the left, so that's the way we went. Percy dropped behind Jason and me again while Hazel took point.

It went like the other hallways had (with a lot less lightning, thankfully). Hazel paused in the middle of the hallway though, spinning on her heel to back track a couple of steps.

The three of us moved to the other side of the hallway, letting her do her thing. She pressed both hands on the wall, as though she were about to push it.

"Right here," she said, frustration leaking into her voice. "It should be right here."

"The hostages?" I asked. My heart was suddenly beating too loud. I was afraid of not being able to hear her reply.

"No," she answered, looking slightly apologetic. Jason squeezed my hand. "The main control room."

That was good too. Not as great as the hostages, but it was something I could work with.

The four of us trailed our hands across the walls, searching for any hidden switch or lock or whatever an evil family of terrorists who kidnap and shoot innocent people on their days off use to hide their main control room.

Eventually, I slumped crossed legs on the floor. There just didn't seem to be a way in. The demigods sat down with me. We all stared at the wall. The stone wall was old, but it was in good condition, so it didn't seem plausible that the door would be anything more than a regular door. It would be too heavy to lift up, especially without any gears that I was confident that we'd be able to find readily enough. So that meant there were hinges, probably on the inside. The stone may also be slightly thinner.

I could feel the traces of a nasty headache forming at my temples.

"If only we could just say the magic word," Percy lamented. "It would just swing open."

"What would the magic word be?" Jason asked him.

"Or phrase," Hazel added. "It could be a magic phrase."

"Probably something like _Vespers rock!_ " Percy suggested.

The wall remained stony and immovable.

"It's probably more like _Destroy the Cahills_ ," I muttered, resting my forehead on my legs. I probably looked like a ragged praying monk teen, but I didn't really care.

"It might be their moto or goal," Jason said.

"This is assuming that it even is a password," I snapped back, intending for a harsh rebuke of their fantasy door, but I ended up sounding more desolate and hopeless than I had ever heard myself. It was as though a whole other person had spoken—a person that had been broken and beaten down.

I straightened my spine. I was not beaten down yet, not while Dan was waiting for me to come get him. I shoved myself up. "I'm done with this sick game Vesper One's playing." I told them, facing the wall.

Percy placed a hand on the wall. "Look, maybe we're overthinking this," he said. "He obviously wants you to play this game, right?"

I nodded, turning my focus onto the black haired teen.

"Well, then we can assume he probably wants you to make it the boss level or whatever you want to call it."

"And?" Hazel asked, her eyes glinted with curiosity and confusion.

"And," I said, finally understanding, "that means he wants me to win the levels up until then."

"So there must be a way in," Jason finished.

I pulled out the Vesper phone. I scrolled to the last received text message, trying to look desperately for some riddle or clue to opening the door.

"This last line's out of character," I said, tilting the screen to Jason. "Look, he hopes I'm ready. Why would he say that?"

"Ready for what?" Percy asked.

"Game day," Jason read.


End file.
